29 November 2012

with faith ford; her husband campion murphy and their associate chad bailey (sp?) tuesday, 27 november 2012, appearance before the alexandria, louisiana city council's finance and legal affairs committee, details of their plan to teach the film making craft to locals has become clearer.

the below news report from gannett/the alexandria daily town talk which appeared on their website here and on page a-3 of the wednesday, 28 november 2012, print edition, is a pretty accurate recital of what the acp managers had to say.

although ms. ford's plan doesnt call for a full blown brick and mortar film school as we'd originally hoped, we still support it as long as using taxpayer money is just a one time occurrence. inkind contributions are a different matter.

one thing that does concern us is that the plan as presented doesnt seem to leave much room for error. it really does seem like a one shot attempt.

like she said, ms. ford & acp have some thirty years experience in the film industry. they have valuable knowledge that they are willing to share; we hope that their project is a success.

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alexis crew productions, l3c, was registered as a low profit limited liability company with the louisiana sec'y of state on 19 november 2012

in short, on or about 24 october 2012, the faircloth law group made a one thousand dollars campaign donation to tim kelley who was running for associate justice of the louisiana supreme court. the election was held less than two weeks later.

according to the louisiana sec'y of state elections website, judge kelley received only 3.07% of the vote or second from the bottom in an eight candidate field.

surely the polls and being so close to the election, it must have been strongly suspected; especially to a seasoned casino and political attorney such as mr. faircloth, that judge kelley had very little chance of making the runoff -- eh?

then, when you consider that the voucher lawsuit was filed months ago and as far as we know, mr. faircloth has been the governor's attorney from the start and the case has always been allotted to judge kelley ... well, we dont even gamble, much, but it's certainly not beyond the realm of imagination to ponder whether or not that with mr. faircloth's donation he was "hedging his bet," so to speak, on the pending voucher lawsuit. in the least it probably didnt hurt either right?

in any event, due to this revelation of cenlamar's, judge kelley should recuse himself because any ruling in favor of the governor is obviously not going to be seen as legitimate.

14 November 2012

a blurb at the end of a billy gunn piece in this morning's gannett/alexandria daily town talk got our attention:

Mayor Jacques M. Roy and Councilman Jerry Jones Jr. announced a possible teaming of the city with actress and producer Faith Ford and her husband, Campion Murphy, who also is in the film business. The couple lives in Pineville, where Ford is from.The endeavor would train television and film crews needed to produce programs in Central Louisiana.The company owned by Ford and Murphy has been coined "Alexis Crew Productions," but has not yet registered its incorporation with the state, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State's website.

we see the obvious political intrigue. we were surprised that jules green did as well as he did in the election.

councilman jerry jones is widely viewed as mayor roy's puppet to cure that perception we expected them to stage a falling out so that councilman jones could establish his independence. apparently they both felt they needed to go to film school first in order to pull that off.

even so we prefer this carrot-n-stick approach because a film school would be an enhancement to the community. it would be good for the blogosphere and online community as well. if anyone could take a class to learn how to film, produce and post online, say, public meetings like a teevee show. then a school like that would provide the public with knowledge and information of real value.

sooner rather than later and one way or another, the louisiana supreme court is gonna have to bow to common sense, technology, public pressure or a constitutional amendment and finally provide for the recording and live streaming of court room proceedings. that channel would get some ratings.

so our initial impression over the film school is that it would be a plus.

others have their own ideas like mr. jules green who phoned in to ksyl's talkback preshow w/ fred & bob this morning to invoke unpleasant memories of the bonnie and clyde film.

he did mention that the city is obligating itself to put up to $50,000 in money and/or services -- info that mr. gunn conveniently left out of his report.

questions that remain unanswered so far are: if councilman jones loses to mr. green will there still be a film school located someplace else or is it all or nothing?
is the film school even viable or is just a hoax to get councilman jones reelected? (remember the hotel bentley sale and downtown condos hoax from several years ago?) would the mayor pull out all the stops and create a hoax to get a councilman that he controls reelected? yeah probably - but on the other hand what does ms. ford stand to gain by participating in a political hoax?

this is what we believe - we believe that ms. ford and her husband want to open a film school and this provides a pretty good plan.

whether the district 3 location is dependent on an all or nothing vote for councilman jones remains to be seen.
anyway, earlier we tweeted ms. ford and asked her to add our email address to any press release list they have; she tweeted back that she would. if we receive anything we'll post it. you can always follow and tweet her yourself @faith_ford.

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wst... note we began drafting this post early this morning when we first read the gannett/town talk report and added to it as the morning progressed. we dont know anything more about this project than what we've disclosed here. we have emailed councilman jones and city attorney charles johnson and asked if the film school is planned to be located within district 3 and for a copy of whatever was introduced on tuesday that mr. green was on about. if we receive a response we'll post it.

UPDATE: alexandria city attorney charles johnson replied tentatively:

To date, there are no documents responsive to your request other than the title of the prospective ordinance. I will forward a copy of the titled introduction. The actual draft of the ordinance has not been completed.

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UPDATE-2 email from city attorney charles johnson:

Find enclosed the document responsive to your request. The media piece you forwarded does not accurately state what the mayor said at the council meeting. We will send a copy of the full ordinance once completed. It will be near the date set for final adoption.

remember this is just a preamble-- the final ordinance is being ironed out. nowhere does it say or suggest that the mayor is about to hand over $50,000 of the taxpayers money to the alexis crew productions principals.

it's likely that any taxpayer funds expended will be in the form of inkind value.

such that probably any neighborhood that ms. ford placed her school in would benefit.